Monthly Archives / July 2005

Many of us cannot deny that the best hawker food in this world are found in Penang, the pearl of the orient. While there are variety of offerings, I have decided to introduce you the most talked about penang dish of all – Char Kuih Teow.

There are two acclaimed Char Kuih Teow places in Penang and they are situated only about 1 kilometer from each other. The Macalister Road Sister’s Char Kuih Teow, also known as the 5-junction Char Kuih Teow, and the other that is situated at Lorong Selamat.

Personally I go for the one at Macalister Road simply for the fact that the Lorong Selamat aunty has been way too arrogant and over her head. You have to wait at the stall under the searing sun, sometimes up to half an hour, to serve yourself that plate of Char Kuih Teow. That is too much trouble I’m willing to spend just to save the stall owner RM 30 bucks hiring a helper a day.

Here’s a typical plate of Sister’s Kuih Teow. Served on a piece of banana leaf, with bean sprouts, egg, huge prawns, and topped with some awesome crab meat. Try some when you are in Penang next time!

You drolling yet?

Here’s Lorong Selamat’s stall, you can see those desperate dudes lining up under the sun to self-serve their kuih teow. I’m not doing that.

An interesting trivia: rumours have it that the sisters used to be “working girls” when they were young. Luck was on their side that when their bodies aren’t desirable anymore, their cooking skills came to the rescue.

The definition of Ah Beng: Ability to speak hokkien, and especially fluent in cursing with the language. Likes to eat bakut teh and hokkien mee. Other than that, ah beng also must have short, spiky hair inspite of thinning hair line.

B: Subang Chow Ah Beng Terence GohThis dude loves to eat curry mee with lotsa pork blood, and was a drunk and chimney, recently quit both in fear of getting his ears pulled by the significant other. He also have a weird sense of taste in car modification

C: Penang Chow Ah Beng Choo Heng Horng @ Choo Heng HornyThe latter name given by a particular hotel in Johor that miss-spelled his G to Y. I’ve known this guy for over 20 years and he’s currently my pond co-builder. Of course the Klang and Subang Chow Ah Bengs helped, too. Dude also occasionally gives the middle finger.

Alot of us sushi lovers don’t get to eat sushi as often as we like due to the fact that these stuff are pricey. And any self respecting sushi connoisseur would not step into Sushi King or Genki Sushi. Those places use pre-molded rice and pre-cut fish that aren’t terribly fresh. The outer part of the rice also gets dried up, making the texture left to be desired. Last but not least, those places only create an illusion of economic sushi, they certainly aren’t cheap at all considering the quality of stuff you get.

Now most of the stuff they sell at this ‘prestige’ Japanese departmental store aren’t cheap, or even average. However, much to my delight when I started working at KLCC, their sushi is priced very reasonably, and I would say even cheaper than Jusco and Cold Storage. They carry a wide selection too.

You get Amaebe for RM 1.50, Salmon for RM 1, Tuna for RM 0.75, Scallope for RM 1.50 (where else do you find single peace scallope?), Surf Clam for RM 1.50. They sell some bento too. The stuff is fresh, and 7 pieces of sushi fitting nicely in a disposable plastic container usually costs me less than RM 10. A good choice for light lunch.

I tarpau from there so often I have a bottle of soya sauce in the office. If you don’t have the luxury of working there, you can always tarpau and then eat at the food court at 2nd or 4th floor.

10 bucks for fresh and good sushi with a good selection, what more could you ask for?

Now that you’ve read about my entries on Vietnamese meals here and here, it’s time to move on to the desserts.

Now, I’m not really a huge fan of ice cream, but everytime I came back from Vietnam, my mom had always asked me “So have you had the coconut ice cream yet?” This was my 5th trip to the city, and I thought what better time than now to try it?

Coconut Ice Cream in a.. coconut, of course!

The toppings are dried logan, nuts, and that rolled up bakery thing. Fresh strawberry and grapes on the side, too. You eat some ice cream, you mix it up with some fresh coconut meat, man, this you gotta try it for yourself. It was sweet and it was great! Nevermind I had to drink about 3 glasses of water later.

Vietnamese Coffee, really black

Vietnam is also famous for it’s coffee. They come really thick and black, and they come pretty sweet too. What you see in the picture isn’t a half filled glass cos I drank some, it was how it came. Really thick that you can’t possibly drinking a full glass without instantly having caffien overdose. Starbucks & Coffeebean ain’t got nothing on Vietnamese Coffee, and it’s way cheaper too.

Oh yeah, I had to drink another few glasses of water to clear my throat and tongue. hehe